As August is a popular time to take a holiday, remember to move those potted plants into a shady corner, and if possible, place them on some wet gravel to help retain moisture. If you are going to be away then there will be lots of tidying to do before you go.
Trim lavender and remove the old flower spikes. This will encourage new growth for next years’ flowers. To keep the garden neat and tidy remove any dead flower heads and seed pods. Trim wisteria, and laurel hedges. It’s best to use secateurs to do this not shears which will damage the leaves. Cut back any perennials that have blown over and are encroaching on paths and lawns. Thin and shorten any rambler roses as they finish flowering. Tie in and disbud dahlias and chrysanthemum where prize blooms are wanted. This obviously does not apply to pompom dahlias and spray chrysanths. Continue to cut and dry everlasting flowers like statice, helichrysum and acodinium. Tie them in bunches upside down in a dry place.
Watch out for early signs of blight on potatoes, continue to spray fortnightly. If you are unfortunate to get the blight harvest immediately or at least cut off the tops and destroy them. This will stop the bight travelling down the stems to the potatoes. Harvest sweet corn, courgettes and beans – this will encourage further cropping. Bend the tops of onions over which will encourage ripening. Remove the lower leaves from tomato plants and remove dense foliage where it covers the fruit. The tomatoes will benefit from the sun for ripening. The same applies to the foliage covering fruits like apples and pears. Remove any diseased fruits. Earwigs can be a great nuisance on dahlias, they eat the flowers and damage petals. They like hiding in dark dry places so block up the end of the supporting canes and trap them in an upturned flowerpot filled with hay.
Make a sowing of onions and spring cabbage. White Lisbon is a good spring onion. You can sow lawn seed from late August. Pot up rooted geranium cuttings. Water any newly planted strawberries- but don’t plant them too closely. Plant winter brassicas.
Most lilies should be planted in November or early spring, but the Madonna lily, Lilium candidum is an exception and must be planted in August- do not bury the bulbs too deeply. Autumn bulbs like Colchicum ,Nerines and Saffron crocus can also be planted now. Also plant border carnations. Feed ferns, brussel sprouts and all brassicas to help continue growth. If you have not done already place your order for Christmas bulbs. To grow good plants needs good soil and adding compost does this naturally. From now on there should be quite a lot of garden waste so prepare your compost heap. Keeping it watered will speed up the decomposition of the organic matter.
The Gardening Year